A Lightening Conversation
by The Shroud
Summary: Barry knows Thawne's plans have plans. And he finally understands this one, with Ralph's help. But he might have to let it happen. He explains why. One-shot.


**Disclaimer:**

I do not own DC Comics. I do not own The CW. I do not own anything related to DC Comics in general, or The Flash specifically. Except maybe a few DVDs of old DC movies that I haven't given away yet.

**A Lightening Conversation**

By The Shroud

**Updated: **May 12, 2019, minor edits

**A/N:**

My second one-shot. Please review on whatever you can, suggestions, ideas, etc. This just goes more in depth into why Barry is focusing on Cicada so much, and gives him more credit than being incredibly stupid compared to how he was a great CSI in season one, which, combined with how _no one _listened to Ralph, is most of what could have easily been fixed in the recent episode. The other major problem was how they had nonsense melodrama about, "Here's a very good idea that makes sense for once!" "No you can't do that, it's too dangerous, even though that is literally your job description!" "Fine... but actually, _I'm gonna do it without you, ya losers!_" "Oh yeah, that is a good idea! _Fine,_ we'll help you with it," which happens way too often in The Flash in specific and the Arrowverse in general. And they do it with bad ideas too, like earlier this season, with the mind interface thing, and with Felicity and breaking out Cayden James. Enough with why I have been feeling annoyed recently, here... we... go.

* * *

One of the oldest members of Team Flash, Cisco Ramon, was speaking, "...super-charge, she'll kill every meta in the country."

At that moment, one of the newest members of Team Flash, Ralph Dibney, walked in while pulling along a transparent whiteboard, interrupting, "All right, look, I know you guys want me off this whole Thawne thing, but you've got to hear this."

Groaning, the leader of Team Flash, Barry Allen, turned around, partially taking off his jacket and wrapping it around his ears childishly, responding like a teenager upset that their friend is trying to be reasonable, starting, "Ralph..."

Ralph insisted, "No, you've really got to look at this." Barry repeated more forcefully, provoking Ralph, "You've just got to hear this. So just - just give me a second, all right?!"

Barry relented, "All right," calming Ralph down, who was pleading, "Please."

Ralph shook his arm, holding a marker with the cap on, explaining while gesturing at the board, "All right, so, this is the original timeline, with the original Cicada, David Hersch. This is the night of the Enlightenment, when Nora interfered with the satellite, giving us our Cicada, Orlin Dwyer. That's also the same night that Grace goes into a coma. This is where it gets complicated. At some point in the future, Grace wakes up, she becomes her own, full fledged Cicada. She goes back in time, she kills her uncle with his own dagger. What happens to all the metas that Dwyer killed? Do they get 'un-killed'? What about all the metas that Grace killed in the future? What did she kill them with? And most importantly, what happens in the timeline where Grace never killed Dwyer? Something doesn't add up. And I bet it's Thawne. From what I hear, his plans have plans."

Barry considers it, "Maybe you're right. Maybe Thawne manipulated this. But what is it about stopping Cicada that would help him? Does it shift the timeline some way, make sure he's never capt-" Barry stopped, almost frozen in shock. "That's it. Cicada's dagger. He was exposed to it, or something, and that's how he ended up in prison."

Ralph jumps to a conclusion, "So if we destroy the dagger, we let him loose? We can't let that happen!"

Barry contemplates the dilemma before coming to a conclusion, "If we defeat Cicada, Thawne might be freed. But perhaps it doesn't matter as much."

Cisco was shocked, "You'd let him go free? After all he did?!"

Barry clarified, "No! He killed my mother. I won't ever forgive him for that. But he's the lesser evil. Thawne's only goals are to go home, and to make me suffer. Cicada's goal, is not only to kill me, but would also wipe out _every _metahuman off the face of this country. We can't let that happen. If we capture Cicada, we still have a chance to beat Thawne, even assuming this _does_ free him, and we've done it before anyway. We can't let Cicada keep the dagger; with it, she's nearly undefeatable, and will find another way to kill every metahuman. It's pure luck she hasn't gone after any of us in our sleep at home yet, or found us at S.T.A.R. Labs. She'd just have to walk by at night while holding the dagger. If we let Cicada keep the dagger to _maybe_ keep Thawne captured, still assuming that he hasn't any backup plan, and he would, there is no chance, it won't even matter, because I'll be too dead... along with every other metahuman she can find."

Ralph relented, "Okay. We can focus on Cicada, deal with Thawne later."

Cisco started walking out, saying, "We'll go see what the satellites can do, try to track Grace. Maybe we're due for a miracle. Hey Ralph, come on." Ralph took one last look at the board with everything they knew about Grace, before walking out.

Iris turned to Barry, "Hey. Do you think we made the right decision, leaving Nora out of this? I mean, the whole reason she came back in the first place was to fight Cicada."

Barry confessed, "No. But I just... I just don't want to risk her getting hurt. Maybe if Cisco doesn't get anything in two hours, then we'll try it."

Once they walked out of the room, Barry's daughter, Nora West-Allen, phased back out of the wall. She looks at the Cicada evidence board, and decides that two hours is too long to wait, and makes her move.

* * *

**A/N:**

And that concludes this one-shot. They really milked out all the melodrama and episode time they could, which only sapped out the life in it. If they keep on making only 21 out of 42 minutes actually fun (discounting time for ads), one might as well use those 42 minutes for 21 worthwhile minutes of another series, and another 21 worthwhile minutes of a third series.

I hope this fixed enough of the problems in that scene. They tried to convey the theme of parents being protective of their child (within the season's theme of family), and it ended up resulting in overprotective parents that are frankly absolutely unlikable. Over this whole season, they have been vilifying Barry, turning him into a short-sighted person, giving him the Oliver Queen treatment of Arrow. It's unacceptable.

_Every_ character one uses should be likable/understandable/relatable. Otherwise, the audience will dislike the character, not be able to understand the character, and not be able to relate to them. And that means the audience wouldn't want to see that character, meaning that the character _deserves _to be killed off. Yes, they should die. All of them, just like the showrunners (that is, whoever comes up with this) killed better characters! And that's a Malcolm Merlyn reference.

**Edit:**

Fixed some minor typos. For guest reviewers, I have used the guest moderation option to edit your reviews to have a separate section containing my response. At least, FF thinks I have.


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